Arachnid: Hunting the Web’s Darkest Secrets is a six-part podcast that examines a David-and-Goliath fight against the most powerful tech companies in the world to end a massive, global trade in child sex abuse imagery.

Globally, tens of millions of images of child sexual abuse constantly circulate online, and the growth of AI makes matters worse. Even when abusers are caught or victims are saved, digital footprints of these crimes endure. Survivors experience constant harm, as their images are uploaded and shared for years. Sometimes they are stalked, forced to move, and even change their names. The consequences for families can be devastating.

A small Winnipeg-based, non-profit organization, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), along with a global group of survivors and motivated supporters are fighting back.

Led by Executive Director Lianna McDonald, C3P is working to hold tech companies to account for the irresponsible and irreparable harm they are causing, and for their refusal to act.

C3P has developed Project Arachnid, an internationally heralded tool that crawls the web, detects and flags illegal images, and triggers their removal. It has scanned more that 170 billion images posted on more than five billion websites. Analysts have double vetted this material and identified more than 14 million of them as portrayals of child sex abuse. About 40 million notices have been sent to internet providers around the world.

Empowered by C3P’s efforts and Arachnid’s promise, survivors are confronting their trauma, speaking out, advocating for change internationally, and demanding stronger laws that hold tech giants to account.

The problem is that the tech companies refuse to act, citing privacy and free speech.

Some countries have passed laws to better protect children from online harm, but many have yet to take decisive action. These include Canada, where the Online Harms Bill stalled, and the United States.

A major obstacle is Section 230, a 1996 amendment to the U.S. Communications Act of 1934. This amendment declares that tech companies will not be held liable for content posted on their platforms. It was enacted to encourage the growth of the internet but has become a major liability shield for tech companies that do not take responsibility for content on their platforms.

The team behind Arachnid: Hunting the Web’s Darkest Secrets spent years building trust with sources in this sensitive field. The podcast takes listeners from the Winnipeg-based computers that spin their webs around the globe, to police stations, to the office of the online safety commissioner in Australia, and to the living rooms of still-vulnerable survivors.

As UC Berkeley Professor Hany Farid puts it, reporting on this delicate issue requires care, and tact. It’s like walking a tightrope to discuss such a horrific topic: simultaneously exposing the horrors of child sexual abuse material and its impact, without crushing the listener in a mountain of tears.